"Same old Bill, eh Mable!" eBook

We know that, in 1386, the poet Chaucer was elected
a knight of the shire for Kent, and in 1392-3 he was
residing at Greenwich. He evidently knew something
of the Kentish dialect; and he took advantage of the
circumstance, precisely as Gower did, for varying his
rimes. The earliest example of this is in his
Book of the Duchess, l. 438, where he uses
the Kentish ken instead of kin (A.S.
cynn) in order to secure a rime for ten.
In the Canterbury Tales, E 1057, he has kesse,
to kiss (A.S. cyssan), to rime with stedfastnesse.
In the same, A 1318, he has fulfille, to fulfil
(cf. A.S. fyllan, to fill), to rime with
wille; but in Troilus, iii 510, he changes it
to fulfelle, to rime with telle; with
several other instances of a like kind.

It is further remarkable that some Kentish forms seem
to have established themselves in standard English,
as when we use dent with the sense of dint
(A.S. dynt). When we speak of the left
hand, the form left is really Kentish,
and occurs in the Ayenbite of Inwyt; the Midland
form is properly lift, which is common enough
in Middle English; see the New English Dictionary,
s.v. Left, adj. Hemlock is certainly
a Kentish form; cf. A.S. hymlice, and see
the New English Dictionary. So also is
kernel (A.S. cyrnel); knell (A.S.
cnyllan, verb); merry (A.S. myrge,
myrige); and perhaps stern, adj. (A.S.
styrne).

There are some excellent remarks upon the vocalism
of the Kentish dialect in Middle English by W. Heuser,
in the German periodical entitled Anglia, vol
XVII pp. 73-90.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MERCIAN DIALECT

I. EAST MIDLAND

The Mercian district lies between the Northern and
Southern, occupying an irregular area which it is
very difficult to define. On the east coast it
reached from the mouth of the Humber to that of the
Thames. On the western side it seems to have
included a part of Lancashire, and extended from the
mouth of the Lune to the Bristol Channel, exclusive
of a great part of Wales.

There were two chief varieties of it which differed
in many particulars, viz. the East Midland and
the West Midland. The East Midland included,
roughly speaking, the counties of Lincoln, Rutland,
Northampton, and Buckingham, and all the counties (between
the Thames and Humber) to the east of these, viz.
Cambridge, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hertford, Middlesex,
Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. We must also certainly
include, if not Oxfordshire, at any rate the city of
Oxford. This is by far the most important group
of counties, as it was the East Midland that finally
prevailed over the rest, and was at last accepted